By Hatchet, Axe, Saw...

[Nbadan]

Or litigation...what ever it takes! Disgusting....

Clinton lawsuit could muddy Texas caucuses
By JAY ROOT McClatchy Newspapers Thu, Feb. 28, 2008 10:54 PM


The Texas Democratic Party is warning that its March 4 caucuses could be delayed or disrupted after aides to White House hopeful Hillary Clinton raised the specter of an "imminent" lawsuit over its complicated delegate selection process, officials said Thursday night.

In a letter sent out late Thursday to both the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns, Texas Democratic Party lawyer Chad Dunn warned that a lawsuit could ruin the Democrats' effort to re-energize voters just as they are turning out in record numbers.

Spokesmen from both campaigns maintained there were no plans to sue before the March 4 election.

"It has been brought to my attention that one or both of your campaigns may already be planning or intending to pursue litigation against the Texas Democratic Party," Dunn said in the letter, obtained by the Star-Telegram. "Such action could prove to be a tragedy for a reinvigorated Democratic process."

Link (http://www.kansascity.com/449/story/510802.html)

Hillary is Dubya circa 2000...

[fyatuk]

Or litigation...what ever it takes! Disgusting....

Clinton lawsuit could muddy Texas caucuses
By JAY ROOT McClatchy Newspapers Thu, Feb. 28, 2008 10:54 PM


Link (http://www.kansascity.com/449/story/510802.html)

Hillary is Dubya circa 2000...

It's not like it's anything new for Dems either. They went through a lot of lawsuits last election to prevent select minor candidates from appearing on the ballot. It shouldn't be a suprise that any of the candidates would be willing to sue the TDP over its convoluted selection process in such a close race...

[DarkReign]

I keep hearing about Texas' convoluted delegate selection.

Can someone give a cliffnotes version of what the hell everyone is talking about?

[fyatuk]

I keep hearing about Texas' convoluted delegate selection.

Can someone give a cliffnotes version of what the hell everyone is talking about?

I'm not entirely sure myself. Aside from the state's Superdelegates, Texas has guidelines to give some delegates based on statewide victory, some for each district, and another group to be given at evening caucuses (apparently anyone who votes in the Democrat primary can attend the caucus afterwords).

That's about all I know, since I refuse to vote in primaries anyway.

[101A]

Or litigation...what ever it takes! Disgusting....

Clinton lawsuit could muddy Texas caucuses
By JAY ROOT McClatchy Newspapers Thu, Feb. 28, 2008 10:54 PM


Link (http://www.kansascity.com/449/story/510802.html)

Hillary is Dubya circa 2000...Please link the count that Bush didn't win.

Gore tied it up; the SC put an end to the foolishness.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

there is unrest in the forest. there is trouble with the trees.

[xrayzebra]

Oh my, the dimms are throwing some more their own kind under
the bus......what's new pussy cat........yeoooooowwwww, yeooooowww. Look on page 3 paragraph 3 of their play book,
normally reserved for conservatives.

[Don Quixote]

there is unrest in the forest. there is trouble with the trees.

That is a great song!

I am a huge fan of Rush, and am planning to see them in New Orleans next weekend.

The song, "The Trees," however, is about communism, or socialism. It's pretty obvious. I'm not sure it applies to Hillary's campaign ...

It might apply to liberal politics, however.

[GaryJohnston]

Clinton Machine just wont stop

[BonnerDynasty]

Ya'll should open up a portal to another dimension and push her in just before it closes like they do in the movies.

[ClingingMars]

That is a great song!

I am a huge fan of Rush, and am planning to see them in New Orleans next weekend.

The song, "The Trees," however, is about communism, or socialism. It's pretty obvious. I'm not sure it applies to Hillary's campaign ...

It might apply to liberal politics, however.

0cElkco-hDk

also i love libertarians/ron paul supporters who call real conservatives neo-cons. you have no idea what real conservatism is, even if it bit you in the ass.

- Mars

[Don Quixote]

also i love libertarians/ron paul supporters who call real conservatives neo-cons. you have no idea what real conservatism is, even if it bit you in the behind.

- Mars

Who? Me? What did I say?

I'm an orthodox conservative and I didn't support Ron Paul. Am I being called out?

:wtf

[Nbadan]

Hitlary calls a play straight out of the Rove playbook


d-hbPmcMFxU

[Yonivore]

I wonder what the left will do if Hillary becomes the nominee.

[RandomGuy]

I keep hearing about Texas' convoluted delegate selection.

Can someone give a cliffnotes version of what the hell everyone is talking about?

As a Democrat who was elected a delegate from my precinct, I can probably best answer this and unfortunately will be unable to keep it short.

Texas Democrats have a two system process for awarding the pledged delegates to the national convention. Each system awards a portion of the overall delegates.

The first system is that of a voting primary that we are all familiar with, i.e. go to the polls after you have registered, declare your party affiliation and vote.

The second system is that of a caucus.

On the day of the voting primary, you hang around the polling place until after the voting closes, and do a precinct-level caucus. (details omitted here)

From this caucus, delegates + alternates to the county conventions are elected, (details omitted here)

After a few weeks, all the precinct delegations gather for a county level caucus that mirrors the precinct level caucus. This was as far as I got into the process. Everybody gets together and has another quick election to pick the county delegates to the state convention. (more details omitted here)

The county delegates then get together to go to the state convention that ultimately elects the pledged delegates to the national convention.

I can go into more details, but each convention is essentially a mini-election, with delegates who want to go forward in the process giving short speeches. As the process goes to the next levels it becomes more and more like a mini-election with delegates actively lobbying for votes, and calling people to talk about who to support.

For our precinct we had one guy who was extremely committed to Obama, and as our overall delegation of 12 voting Obama delegates and 9 voting clinton delegates got to pick ONE state-level voting delegate, we met at a strategy session before the county convention and decided who we would vote for.

The thing about this is that the person with the second number of votes is the alternate who gets to vote if the delegate can't make it, so the alternate for our precinct was a Clinton supporter.

Overall in Hays County, the delegation went about 62% Obama, and 38% Clinton.

This long involved process in other states has tended to heavily favor Obama for a variety of reasons, and Texas is no different.

Ultimately Obama will win Texas because of this, as the popular vote was pretty much almost even, but the caucuses lean heavily to Obama. He will end up with about 55%-60% of the pledged delegates selected through the caucus system, and this will be enough to give him more pledged delegates from Texas than Clinton by a lead of about 7-9 delegates out of 73 (if memory serves).

I skipped a lot of minutae in the process and would be happy to fill in the rest.

Ultimately, a lot of this process was put in place during a period in time where race was a much larger factor, and was intended to promote inclusivity. There is a rather strong movement within the party to streamline the process, and I would not be surprised if it was not changed along those lines before the next national election in 2012.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

are the oaks still ignoring the maples needs?

[RandomGuy]

For what is was worth, there were indeed a few Republicans who tried, as Rush "herky-jerky" Limpballs urged, to get into the process for Hillary, but people who listen to Rush tend to be not overly bright and not very good actors, and didn't get far into the process.

There was one guy who probably tried to do this in our precinct, but as he voted in the Republican primary then tried to do a Democratic caucus, he got booted during the certification process.

Given the odds, I highly doubt any Republican would get to the national convention in the manner that Mr. Limbaugh urged if only because of sheer odds.

From the 87,000 precinct delegates, only 9000 state delegates were selected and only about 73 will ultimately go on to national.

Figure the odds that anyone would get one of those 73 slots who wasn't a dyed in the wool Democrat and likely already an elected official or party activist of some sort...

[Don Quixote]

are the oaks still ignoring the maples needs?

The maples should just be happy in their shade!